1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic or mechanical device that acts as an automated agent enabling clients to participate in a game of chance even though the clients are not present at the site of the game. In more particular, the invention relates to an electronic or mechanical device located at a site where a game of chance takes place. The device acts as an automated agent by purchasing wagering chances, playing those chances, and reporting the results of those games of chance to clients who are not present at the site where the game takes place.
2. Background
In many jurisdictions, regulations require that all players participating in bingo games and other types of games that involve consideration, chance, and prizes, be present at the site or bingo hall where the game takes place. Oftentimes players are required to announce that they have a winning card or chance in order to win.
It is foreseeable that gaming will be offered prevalently to people at home over the Information Superhighway, through such mediums as the Internet, World Wide Web, America On-Line, and custom gaming related servers, such as American Gaming Network, interactive cable TV, Video on Demand (VOD), telephone or some other yet-to-be discovered mediums. Once gaming is offered through such mediums, it will become even more important commercially to use proxy players that are capable of purchasing and playing games of chance at a gaming site (or within some jurisdiction where it is legal to play) on behalf of people located in jurisdictions where those types of games cannot be legally conducted.
For example, the National Indian Gaming Commission has ruled that proxy play is legal when practiced at an Indian bingo hall. In other words, proxy play can be used for bingo games run on a reservation without violating an important requirement of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act--namely, that in order for a game to be classified as Indian bingo, the entire game must be conducted on Indian land. This rule is important because the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act exempts the conductors of Indian bingo games that are conducted on a reservation from all of the federal gambling laws regarding the use of telephones, computers, the mail, television, etc., across state lines. Further, recent Federal Court cases have ruled that a state cannot prevent people from assisting citizens in that state from participating by proxy in a gaming activity that is legal in another jurisdiction regardless of whether the gaming activity is legal in that state.
Various types of electronic gaming systems are known in the art. Examples of electronic gaming systems include U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,868 to Goldfarb for a "Method of Playing a Game of Chance at Locations Remote from the Game Site" and U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,970 to Fioretti for "Methods and Apparatus for Playing Bingo Over a Wide Geographic Area". The Goldfarb and Fioretti patents use a system-based station rather than a proxy player, as used in applicant's "Proxy Player Machine". Other patents of interest include U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,787 to Itkis for a "Concurrent Game Network", U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,802 to Pocock et al for a "Televised Bingo Game System", U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,035 to Morris et al for a "Video Gaming System with Fixed Pool of Winning Plays and Global Pool Access", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,932 to Chen et al for a "System and Method for Dynamically Controlling Remote Processes from a Performance Monitor". However, none of the previous patents for electronic gaming systems teach a system that allows and assists a remote client in communicating with a proxy player at a gaming site, thereby allowing the remote client to instruct the proxy player regarding decisions relating to play of the game, and allowing the proxy player to play a game for the remote client using the remote client's gaming preferences.